Genre: Post-apocalyptic, Drama
Created by Craig Mazin, Neil Druckmann
Written by Craig Mazin, Neil Druckmann
Based on The Last of Us; by Naughty Dog
Starring: Pedro Pascal & Bella Ramsey.
Composer: Gustavo Santaolalla, David Fleming
Executive producers: Craig Mazin, Neil Druckmann, Carolyn Strauss, Rose Lam, Evan Wells, Carter Swan, Asad Qizilbash
Cinematography: Ksenia Sereda; Eben Bolter; Christine A. Maier; Nadim Carlsen
Producers: Greg Spence, Cecil O’Connor
Editors: Timothy A. Good, Mark Hartzell, Emily Mendez
Production companies: The Mighty Mint, Word Games, PlayStation Productions, Naughty Dog, Sony Pictures Television
Distributor: Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution
Plot: Tasked with escorting a teenager across a post-apocalyptic world, a dreaded smuggler joins hands with a young apprentice to fulfill the mission unscathed.
I was looking forward to this show.
Season 1 of The Last of Us TV Show was excellent.
Pros: This one is another great example of adapting video game Ip into another medium, a tv show. The two leads Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey were a joy to watch, developing a trust with each other over the course of the season. The zombie-like creatures were extremely good. The slow pacing helped with the flow of the show and kept building up the tension. It was so must-see to watch, that I looked forward to a new episode each week to see what would happened next.
Cons: The baddies didn’t impress me and that’s it.
Casts & Characters:
- Pedro Pascal as Joel, a hardened middle-aged survivor who is tormented by the trauma of his past. Joel is tasked with smuggling a young girl, Ellie, out of a quarantine zone and across the United States.
- Bella Ramsey as Ellie, a 14-year-old girl who displays much defiance and anger but has a private need for kinship and belonging.
Guest
- Nico Parker as Sarah, Joel’s daughter.
- John Hannah as Dr. Newman, an epidemiologist who issues a warning about the threat of fungi during a talk show in 1968.
- Merle Dandridge as Marlene, the head of the Fireflies, a resistance movement hoping to gain freedom from the military.
- Josh Brener as Murray, the host of a talk show in 1968. The concept of the talk show was inspired by Dick Cavett and his long-running series The Dick Cavett Show.
- Christopher Heyerdahl as Dr. Schoenheist, an epidemiologist on the 1968 talk show who is skeptical of Newman’s warning.
- Brendan Fletcher as Robert, a thug and black market arms dealer in the Boston Quarantine Zone.
- Anna Torv as Tess, a hardened survivor and Joel’s smuggler partner.
- Gabriel Luna as Tommy, Joel’s younger brother and a former soldier who maintains idealism in his hope for a better world.
- Christine Hakim as Ratna Pertiwi, a mycology professor at the University of Indonesia who advises the government to bomb Jakarta to slow the spread of the infection.
- Nick Offerman as Bill, a survivalist who lives with Frank.
- Murray Bartlett as Frank, a survivalist living in an isolated town with Bill.
- Lamar Johnson as Henry Burrell, who is hiding from a revolutionary movement in Kansas City with his younger brother Sam.
- Melanie Lynskey as Kathleen Coghlan, the leader of a revolutionary movement in Kansas City. Kathleen is an original character created by Mazin as the leader of a group of hunters who appeared in the game.
- Keivonn Montreal Woodard as Sam, a deaf, artistic eight-year-old child who is hunted by violent revolutionaries alongside his brother Henry.
- Jeffrey Pierce as Perry, a revolutionary rebel in a quarantine zone who is Kathleen’s right-hand man.
- John Getz as Eldelstein, a Kansas City doctor who protects Henry and Sam from Kathleen and the revolutionary rebels.
- Rutina Wesley as Maria, the leader of a settlement in Jackson, Wyoming. In the games, Maria is played by Ashley Scott.
- Graham Greene as Marlon, who lives with his wife Florence in the wilderness of Wyoming. Marlon is an original character for the television series.
- Elaine Miles as Florence, who lives with her husband Marlon. Florence is an original character.
- Storm Reid as Riley Abel, an orphaned girl who is growing up in post-apocalyptic Boston.
- Scott Shepherd as David, a preacher who is the leader of a cannibalistic cult. Druckmann felt the series allowed a deeper look into the character’s complexities than the game. In the first game, David is played by Nolan North.
- Troy Baker as James, a senior member of a group of settlers.
- Ashley Johnson as Anna, Ellie’s mother, a lone pregnant woman forced to give birth under frightening circumstances.
I highly recommend watching this season on Sky Atlantic.
Rating: 10 out of 10 Stars
Ryan Balkwill:
Resident TV reviewer,
Level Best Art Cafe